Review: Call of Duty: Black Ops (XBL)

As I’m sure everyone is aware, Treyarch’s new game, Call of Duty: Black Ops was released on November 9. Well, in the last two days, I’ve had the opportunity to play the game. So, check it out!

Now, I’m not much of a campaign girl, so this review is going to be on every thing except the campaign. And trust me – that still leaves plenty!

First up is the Zombie mode. We last saw this in Call of Duty: World at War, and it was quite the hit! This version starts you off with one map and two weapons to choose from, excluding your handgun. The difficulty becomes increasingly hard, the zombies move faster, and there are even zombie dogs! Honestly, if you’ve played the World at War version, it isn’t much different. Just a few adjustments here and there, but still worth a go!

Second up is the multiplayer. Of course, the game is still new, so there are lag and connection issues. My first game took a total of an hour or so to get me and five friends in the same room! A little ridiculous, I must say. Once you get in a lobby, there are some additional features I think everyone will like! The first is that you have the ability to vote on replaying the previous map, playing the next map in sequence, or voting for another randomly generated map. The second thing that caught my attention is the party system. If you and a group of your friends are in a party, the party leader can back out of the lobby and bring all of his or her friends with them! Definitely a great addition to gamers who often play with others!

Once you’re in the game, you’ll notice some neat features that weren’t included in previous games. The first feature is the HUD which now shows quadrants – very helpful for gamers who use call-outs but can’t describe the specific building. The second great thing is that the maps seem balanced and well thought out. There are lots of cover points, different points of elevation and even distractions such as moving targets and mannequins. The aspect of multiplayer I disliked the most is the spawn locations. Often, I was spawn-killed because an enemy was spawned right beside me. Hopefully, Treyarch is working on a fix for this!

The game also has additional perks and equipment that a lot of gamers are going to enjoy! First off – no more nuke! Yes, let me say that again – no more nuke!! That makes me smile. In its place are several different types of air support, rockets, turrets and yes, the RC-XD surveillance vehicle. I know a lot of players are looking forward to this kill streak! Personally, I have a hard time driving it, so I’m not its biggest fan, however from another point of view, they are handy because they are difficult to destroy as they move as such fast speeds.

Outside of mutliplayer and zombies, Call of Duty: Black Ops has a lot of customisation abilities and career tracking.

You can customise your classes, emblem, title, and even the clothing your soldier wears in-game! Complete with a layered emblem creator, players can choose from a variety of letters, numbers and images to make their own personal emblem!

Black Ops also makes tracking your progress, score, kill/death ratio and accuracy much easier! Your combat record details the number of kills and deaths by weapon and gametype, displays both your overall K/D ratio and the K/D ratio for each weapon, what part of your enemy’s body is targeted the most, what part of maps you and your fellow players die the most from, and so much more!

The biggest change, I think, is how you upgrade your weapons. Experience and challenges are now only used for ranking up your soldier, not your weapons. Although you still need to reach a particular level to unlock a weapon, you do not have immediate access to it. In order to access weapons, perks, equipment, camo and emblems you much purchase them using the points or cash you have earned in-game. I like this feature much more, because you can decide what you use and when – no more waiting until you’re level 27 to use a claymore! Just buy it for an easy $5000!

Overall, I must be honest – I truly enjoyed Black Ops. I am a huge “Anti-Treyarch fan”, because World at War disappointed me, but Black Ops is putting my faith back into Treyarch’s abilities! Now, if only they could fix some patches, we’d have an A+ game on our hands!

If you’ve played Black Ops, and you disagree or have your own thoughts, be sure to let me know! Remember folks, this is just my opinion! Grab the game to see what you think!